Juan Diego Rodríguez – Page 20

Kidnapped Animals, Stolen Crops, the Nightmare of the Cuban Farmer

Another unusual crime is the kidnapping of animals: “They kidnap the animal and then call the owner to tell him that if they want the animal back they have to pay.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 17 January 2022 — The wave of robberies in Cuba not only affects the cities but also the countryside, and complaints are multiplying inside and outside social networks. A family from Sancti Spíritus tells this newspaper how 50 quintals (11,000 pounds) of black beans were recently stolen, valued at 6,500 pesos per quintal. It is the third time in a year they have suffered a robbery.

“The police came and did not take fingerprints, they did not do their job right,” Luis (not his real name) denounces to 14ymedio. “The only thing they did was ask if we heard something, if we suspected someone; they work with the information you give them, not with what they can look for.”

The thieves, says Luis, broke into the door of the warehouse where they kept the beans, next to the house where they live, and the family did not sense a thing. The next day they saw that the 50 quintals were missing. “One part we had already sold and the other was for us to plant the next crop,” details the farmer.

The first time it happened to them, the thieves “went into the house and took all the kitchen appliances” and they had to install bars, says Luis. The second time, the bars did not stop the assailants, and they took all the bags of fertilizer for fumigating the beans. “Only a farmer knows how difficult it is to get that,” he laments. continue reading

The farmer has no hope that the police will solve the case: “On another occasion they robbed us, they left evidence, hair, blood, and they didn’t catch anyone, much less now.”

Luis hides his name and his place of origin because he fears reprisals from the government. “My family doesn’t want to make a complaint, because the State wants the farmers to sell them their crops this year despite the fact that they did not support them with anything. They didn’t sell them a pair of boots, not even fertilizer,” he explains.

“With electricity prices so high, to be able to use the electric turbines most of the farmers did not sell anything to the State, nor did they pay taxes.” If the complaint is made public, he is afraid of what might happen. “They can focus on us and see that we do not meet our commitments with the State, although almost nobody did.”

But robberies are not the only crimes in the rural areas of the Island. Another unusual crime is the kidnapping of animals. “They kidnap the animal and then call the owner to tell him that if they want the animal back they have to pay,” says Antonio, another farmer from Sancti Spíritus. “They have already done it with cows and horses.”

For Manso, 78, a producer in Villa Clara, the wave of robberies “is nothing new.” Every year he and his family face the looting of part of their crops, cultivated fields or infrastructure. “They even take the wire from the fences, so one day you think your fields are guarded and when you get up there’s no fence.”

Manso has been robbed of barbed wire, posts, seeds and animals. One day, the thieves came closer and carried off an iron pot that had been in the family for three generations. “It was not a small thing, in that pot we used to make ajiaco as well as to make soaps with mutton fat.”

Animals, especially sheep, horses and cows, are targeted by looters. To the point that ranchers have to organize night shifts and have improvised firearms from metal pipes. Owning an old rifle, in a country where they have not been sold for more than half a century, can make a difference.

“This rifle belonged to my father and I keep it, you have to improvise a lot for it to shoot but the best thing is that it intimidates. Here in this area everyone knows that we are armed and they respect us a little more,” a producer in the agricultural area of San Juan and Martínez told this newspaper.

The farmer, who dedicates a good part of his land to the tobacco harvest, also has a plot dedicated to root vegetables and beans. “The things that are stolen the most in this part are tools, animals and everything they come across. If you leave a saddle outside, they steal the saddle; if you happen to go to bed with clothes on the clothesline, they also take them.”

“Here to steal, a few days ago they took a pair of rubber boats that belonged to me and that were all shabby, from my son they took several sacks with seeds that he was going to plant and one day they even took the dog’s collar and we don’t know how it happened because he barks at the sight of people he doesn’t know.”

“Here you can no longer sleep through the night, there always has to be someone watching,” acknowledges the producer. “We have to keep an eye on the old tractor all the time because they steal your oil and when you wake up, the tank is empty and the tires or rims are stolen to use to leave the country.”

A Catholic priest, who lives in the countryside, reflects on the pain that the looting causes: “They steal everything that represents the center of a family’s life, even coal, some rice, a piece of wire.” And there is no authority that protect the farmers.

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

If Taro is So Expensive in Cuba its ‘Murillo’s Fault,’ Say the Vendors

Malanga is hard to find in state markets anymore and prices are unattainable for most Cubans. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 14 January 2021 — “There’s taro, there’s taro!” an informal vendor insistently proclaimed this Thursday at the San Rafael street market in Central Havana. The announcement quickly raised spirits among customers in the crowded surroundings.

In recent months, it is difficult to find in recent months the tuber that is well known to most Cubans since childhood. Boiled, with sauce, mixed with some milk or submerged in a dish of beans, taro is used as a transition food between breastfeeding and solid food, but inflation has made this food disappear, which, until recently, also reigned in fried foods and purées.

“Yesterday you told me 60 pesos a pound and today it’s 70. Does the price go up from one day to the next?” An indignant customer complained to the merchant. The initial expectation was diluted when the buyers learned the price and the seller responded acidly: “It’s not my fault! Complain to Murillo!” As much as the Cuban government has banished the most visible face of the ’Ordering Task’ to his new position in Tabacuba, the population does not forget the person they identify as responsible for the unstoppable rise in prices.

For decades, Taro has been not only a staple children’s diets, but of anyone with gastric problems. Cuban doctors have recommended it for years in purées for hospitalized, sick or elderly patients with swallowing difficulties. For decades, a quantity of this food for the chronically ill was sold on the rationed market, but that is now a thing of the past. continue reading

Now taro is almost exclusively found in privately managed markets. “The farmers want to charge the transporters 29 pesos a pound for taro, because they say that their expenses have increased. In turn, the transporters also want to earn their share,” a vendor explains to 14ymedio. “If taro reaches my hands at 40 pesos or more, how much am I going to sell it for in the market?”

As with most foods, the increase in production costs makes it difficult for the crops to thrive, and taro has its peculiarities. “It demands a lot of water, it likes abundant irrigation,” says Manuel, a producer from the province of Villa Clara.

“Electricity costs have skyrocketed and now I spend much more money to pump the amount of water that a taro field needs,” he details. “Although it is a strong product and you don’t need boxes to move it, right now it’s a headache to buy bags, because the few that exist, when you find them, have also gone up a lot.”

Fuel, another of the products that is frequently in short supply in Cuba, but which has become impossible since 2019, is another factor. “The producer who is in charge of removing their crop from the fields cannot lower the price of 30 pesos per pound, and with that price he is already making losses. I give mine to an intermediary and when he takes it away, it is no longer my problem. He is the one who sets the price in the market,” adds Manuel.

Consumers are annoyed at a rise in prices that especially affects the most vulnerable people in the household. “My mother has been without a dental prosthesis for three years, because first there was no material to make one. Then the pandemic came, and the whole dental issue is almost paralyzed,” explains a resident of the Havana neighborhood of Cerro.

“My mother’s daily meals are purees based on taro or other foods such as pumpkin or sweet potato,” she adds. “At this price I cannot afford it and I am having to look for other alternatives, but they are not very healthy,” she acknowledges. “My daughter is finishing breastfeeding her little girl and she can’t afford these prices to transition her either.”

In private restaurants and digital sites that sell their products to emigrants who buy it for their families on the Island, the product continues to be offered. “Taro puree with a good Creole sauce and crunchy chips,” announces a paladar (private restaurant) that recommends not to stop “trying the fried foods.” To rediscover the flavor that until recently was the star of dishes for the elderly and babies, now you need to have dollars.

____________

In the Absence of Pork, a Ration of Mortadela with Moringa for Cubans at Christmas

“It’s Christmas and the gift to the Cubans is pork sausage with moringa, and very expensive, what lack of respect,” complained a customer. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 26 December 2021 — Before the popular protests of July 11, the fish market on Calle San Lázaro in Centro Habana had had hardly any supplies for months. After the social explosion, the state trade was supplied with lobster, minced meat and snapper, but that is now a thing of the past and the star of the tablet is the mortadella with moringa.

“It is a new experiment and I do not intend to try it, mine job is only to sell it,” said the clerk who managed sales at the store on the corner of Soledad Street this Saturday. The approaching customers looked in amazement and pouted when they read: “Chicken Mortadella with moringa at 150 pesos per kilogram.”

The mere mention of the word “moringa”, a tree highly valued for its properties, immediately reminds Cubans of former president Fidel Castro. In his last years of life, Castro became obsessed with the properties of these plants, which he even praised as “capable of providing well-paid, shady work.” continue reading

“Can’t they sell a simple pork steak?” an angry buyer said indignantly in line at the fish market on Calle San Lázaro in Central Havana. (14ymedio)

Unpleasant in appearance due to its dark color and somewhat lumpy texture, the new sausage did not elicit much enthusiasm from the audience, despite the desperation to take something home. “In the middle of Christmas and the gift to the Cubans is pork sausage with moringa, and very expensive, what a lack of respect,” complained another customer.

The other offers on the list of products available were special chicken mortadella at 120 pesos per kilogram and chicken croquettes at 57. A woman who was looking for what to put inside the bread for her children’s snack was indecisive when choosing which of the unattractive products displayed in the window she was going to take.

“I don’t know if my children are going to eat the one with moringa, I have no idea what it tastes like,” she said aloud, to which a lady in line replied that the vegetable addition didn’t taste like anything. “What I don’t understand is the difference of 30 pesos compared to the special, it seems expensive to me,” added another person who was listening nearby.

Food mixtures have been a constant in Cuban state trade, which frequently “enriches” the ground meat with soy, adds claria meat (of the catfish genus) to sausages, and now makes use of moringa. But customers seem to still prefer the raw material: “Can’t you sell a simple pork steak?” One frustrated shopper raged on that Christmas morning.

____________

‘Surprises’, a Havana Store Selling in Dollars With Nothing to Sell

The Sorpresas (Surprises) store in the Carlos III Plaza in Central Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 20 December 2021 — “Without surprises and without coffee, we’re doing fine!” a man complained sarcastically on Monday morning, having come to the Sorpresas (Surprises) store in Carlos III Plaza in Central Havana, in search of a packet of coffee to take home.

The establishment, specializing in selling Cubita brand merchandise, was closed with empty counters and shelves. The store, which only takes payment in freely convertible currency (MLC), did not have any notice on its door about the reason for the closure, but there was no sign of coffee at the site.

“Last week at least you could buy the beans to grind at home, now there isn’t even that,” lamented another a customer at the entrance of the establishment.

At first things seemed to be going well at Sorpresas, when it first opened its doors about a year ago, but in recent months it has frequently suffered from shortages. This week it has hit rock bottom with the total closure of the place and without any products on display in the windows.

The Cuba-Café Company reported earlier this month on delays in the arrival of imports and also in deliveries by the coffee-bean processing entities. In regulated commerce — the ration stores — the distribution of coffee for the month of December has already begun, while the precious powder has disappeared even from the foreign exchange stores.

____________

Coffee in Cuba? Not Even in the Dollar Stores

Cubita coffee could only be found at a high price and in beans. There was no trace of the ground. (Networks)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 9 December 2021 — Two days before the end of the month of November, Pedro went to buy coffee at the bodega [ration store], but was very upset when they told him there was none. “No, there is no coffee now, you have to wait for it to come back in,” the clerk explained as he handed back the ration book.

The Havanan was not satisfied with the explanation, but shrugged and started looking for coffee elsewhere. Last month something similar had happened with the sugar, which he could not buy either because, they told him, “it got wet,” although he knew well that there were no leaks in that establishment and that it had not rained those days.

Pedro remembered that in the Sorpresas store, located in the Plaza Carlos III shopping center, they sell coffee in foreign currency. On one occasion he went there for an emergency and bought a couple of small packages for $1.75, so he decided to use the magnetic card of a freely convertible currency (MLC) account in which he keeps some savings in foreign currency, thanks to the remittances that his emigrated daughter sends to him.

The store window displays large packages of Cubita at $14.65, a fairly high price for the retiree, but he still decides to enter the establishment. To his surprise, there is no line, a rarity in this busy center, and the saleswoman is distracted playing on her mobile phone. continue reading

“Grandpa, that coffee is in beans. We haven’t had any ground for days,” says the employee to the disappointed customer. “Now what do I do? I have nowhere to grind the beans, a machine for that nowadays is like a museum object,” Pedro laments. The young woman suggests that he go to the Gran Manzana hotel, where there is a shop dedicated to nationally produced coffee. “Let’s see if you’re lucky …”, she says when they say goodbye.

The journey continues, and Pedro, already eager to find coffee, takes a taxi to Old Havana. But when he arrives at the hotel and sees the store without lines, he fears the worst. “Sir, we don’t have coffee in any format and apparently this situation is going to last a long time,” says the worker.

Pedro, who was thinking of spending money and spending extra money to get his favorite drink, then realizes that the prospect is even worse and he will have to resort to the informal market to get imported coffee, which today is sold at exorbitant prices.

The Cuba-Café Company warned this Tuesday of delays in the arrivals of imports and in the deliveries of the businesses that process the beans, which has harmed “the retail distribution of ’mixed’ coffee* for the family basket.”

The company assured that the December coffee will be sold in its month, because an improvement was already noticeable and, for the next day 25, it is hoping that the problem has been solved. But Pedro had to invest 600 pesos this Wednesday in a 10-ounce (284-gram) package purchased at Revolico, while it remains to be seen if the coffee that was missing in November will be delivered to the warehouses or if Cubans without foreign currency can be put to their lips to a cup of Cuban coffee.

*Translator’s note: “Mixed” coffee includes non-coffee ingredients, for example ground peas.

____________

Cuba: Sitting in the Street to Buy ‘Intimates’ for 50 Pesos and Resell Them for 150

Sanitary pads are almost completely missing from the network of stores in Cuba that accept payment in the national currency. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 2 December 2021 — The long line that gathered this Thursday morning on Galiano Street was swelled by women and men, young and old, despite the fact that the product being sold had a more restricted audience. There, at a small kiosk a few meters from the Teatro América, packages of sanitary pads were being sold for 50 pesos.

The line was long, so several people, in anticipation, brought their own seats from home, something increasingly common among those who wait in front of shops to be able to bring home the basic necessities. Among them, what appeared to be a complete family stood out.

The sale of intimates in the small establishment had not ended when in some windows and doors near the kiosk the resale of the same packages was already observed. Only three times more expensive, at 150 pesos.

The sale of sanitary pads in the network of stores that accept payment in the national currency is practically non-existent. To acquire them, women must go to the black market or foreign exchange stores, in both cases at exorbitant prices.

____________

Among the Curious and ‘Restless Boys’ a Norwegian Sailboat Arrives in Havana

Arrival of the Norwegian sailboat Statsraad Lehmkuhl in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 24 November 2021 — With the sails up and her crew singing, the Norwegian sailboat Statsraad Lehmkuhl docked in Havana on Wednesday. “Are you bringing pork?” A Havanan was heard to say, watching the arrival of the boat from the Malecón. “Pork and hotdogs is what it takes,” he insisted.

The three-masted ship, built in 1914, arrived on the island as part of the One Ocean initiative and will remain anchored for five days at the Sierra Maestra Cruise Terminal. Representatives of Central State Administration entities and diplomats from Norway will make official on the vessel the project called NORAD for the production of marine fingerlings.

“The Malecón is full of restless boys,” mused a young man, alluding to political police officers in plainclothes. “Everybody stares at you when they see you with your cell phone in your hand,” he added. “The same old thing: here, there is more State Security than anything else, looking at you as the face of a serial killer.”

Indeed, the event, despite its eye-catching appearance, did not attract many ordinary Cubans.

This sailboat arrived nine days after Cuba reopened its borders. Its crew will speak this Friday in a seminar on sustainability and the environment of the oceans to be held at Cuba’s Hotel Nacional. continue reading

The crew of the Statsraad Lehmkuhl came singing to Havana. (14ymedio)

Large cruises are still expected on the island this season, another of the Government’s hopes to reactivate the tourism sector, currently plunged into a deep crisis. In the first half of 2021, only 141,316 visitors were received, one-seventh as many as in the same period of the previous year, which was already very bad (986,673).

On October 18, the Prensa Latina agency published that the Fidelis sailboat, with the British flag and registered in Grand Cayman, was the first boat to arrive in Havana. The “pleasure” boat, with eight crew members on board, came from the Varadero resort.

Before the covid-19 pandemic, the Spanish Navy training ship Juan Sebastián de Elcano re-staged its first trip to Havana to commemorate the city’s fifth centenary. Ninety years after its first visit, the boat was greeted with 21 salvoes from the old San Carlos de la Cabaña fortress.

From the entrance to the bay, the songs of the crew of the Norwegian sailboat began, and they greeted the few onlookers who were watching them: “buenos días” and with laughter at the responses of the people from Havana they heard: “How are you?” The spirit remained in the boat, waiting for an order to descend.

____________

A Sad Christmas in Cuba

Not all Cuban homes will have the symbolic Christmas Tree, simply because national businesses will not be selling them. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 23 November 2021 — The air begins to blow from the north, the cool temperatures announce the arrival of the brief Cuban winter and, with it, Christmas is also approaching. The little trees sparkle in a festival of colored lights behind the windows and some shelves are dressed in gala and garlands, but only in the so-called ‘dollar stores’, which accept payment only in hard currency, symbols of the economic apartheid that is taking hold in the country.

Although the official discourse strives to show these days as a time of hope, after the worst of the pandemic, this Christmas can hardly be joyful. Many are no longer among us: those who lost the battle against the covid, those who went to prison simply for going out to protest, those who went into exile leaving broken families, children who can’t to see their parents, parents who can’t see their children.

The end of the year will come in the midst of a crisis that seems to have no end, a galloping devaluation of the Cuban peso and the increasingly evident impossibility of a life in which all Cubans have the same opportunities. Buying traditional products to celebrate in December, such as pork, black beans and cassava, poses a challenge for many families due to the high cost.

Polarization is not only political, but economic. Inequalities are more pronounced than they have ever been between those who can pay with foreign currency and those who only have the humble national currency. And the Christmas holidays are a true reflection of those differences.

Not all Cuban homes will have the symbolic Christmas Tree, simply because national businesses will not be selling them. For this reason, many will have to observe the garlands and the twinkling stars behind the almost inaccessible window of a store in which they cannot even dream of shopping.
____________

What Remains of the Cuban Revolution

At the door of the building, a red motorcycle is the only sign of modern life. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Photo of the Day, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 22 November 2021 — A crumbling building, eaten by moisture, with plants growing wild from the cornices. On the columns, several slogans against the dirty white that seem recent: “Long live the CDRs” (Committees for the Defense of the Revolution), “Long live the 9th [sic] Congress” (of the Communist Party of Cuba, PCC), “Long live the PCC,” ” Viva Fidel.”

There seems to be no life, however, inside the building. It is empty? It looks dark and inhospitable. At the door, a red motorcycle is the only sign of modern life. Perhaps one of those State Security agents who swarm around Havana these days left it there. Perhaps he is stationed on a nearby corner to prevent a citizen suspected of being an activist, practicing independent journalism, or simply thinking differently from going out into the street.

____________

Lines, Cops and High Prices on Havana’s Malecon

Cuban authorities set up food stalls on the Malecon on Saturday, which were open until nighttime. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 21 November 2021 — With recorded music broadcast at full volume and under the surveillance of numerous members of the Ministry of the Interior and the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the authorities of Havana set up food stalls on the Malecón this Saturday, which were open until nighttime.

Several ambulances and military vehicles deployed throughout the area, accompanied the panorama, while drinks and food were sold at kiosks at high prices.

“We have only got fat, nothing else!” Complained a man who, together with his wife, bought several boxes of food to take away, with rice, cassava and some pieces of pork. “This is pure butter,” he insisted.

At various points on the Malecón, small boxes with chicken or pork were sold that included a garnish of rice and a meal, priced at 150 pesos (6 dollars at the official exchange rate). One could also find canned drinks and soft drinks at high prices. continue reading

The assistants ran from one place to another each time a vehicle arrived to stock the tents where the food was sold. Some people, perched on the Monument to the Victims of the Battleship Maine, waited for hours for an anticipated ice cream truck, which never arrived.

The most popular kiosks were the ones that had breads and sweets for sale and where the long lines lasted until the stroke of nine o’clock at night when a heavy downpour dispersed the crowd as well as the law enforcement officers.

“Look at this! Such a long line and drenched in in water to buy these teeth-breaking torticas (shortbread cookies) you can’t even eat!” lamented a woman who took shelter from the untimely rain in the portal of Coppelita.

**Several ambulances and military vehicles deployed throughout the area, accompanied the scene. (14ymedio)**

At the end of October, the capital authorities announced that “Have fun on the Malecón,” as they call this type of fair, was going to be held until November 16, however, the date has been extended after the opposition group Archipiélago announced it would maintain its call for protests until November 27.

A few yards from the shoreline, away from the hustle and bustle, at 23 y L, the Yara cinema was showing the feature film Cuentos de un día más, the first film co-produced between the state-run Cuban Institute of Art and Cinematographic Industry (Icaic) and collectives from independent creation. The film, coordinated by director Fernando Pérez, brings together six stories that try to reflect part of the reality of today’s Cuba.

The reopening of cinemas, theaters and cultural centers is part of the framework that the Cuban Government developed to open the country to tourism as of November 15, alleging a decrease in cases of covid-19 and that a large percentage of the population has been vaccinated.

____________

‘Here, Today, Even the Street Sweeper Belongs to the Political Police’

The authorities have deployed their security forces in the vicinity of San Rafael so that the scenes of popular protests that were seen on July 11 are not repeated this 15N. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, Juan Diego Rodríguez, 15 November 2021 — Havana woke up this Monday with an autumn atmosphere and a wide police operation to prevent the Civic March called for three in the afternoon on November 15 in various parts of the city and the country. The vicinity of the Capitol, Central Park and the Malecón are among the most guarded areas.

On the Boulevard of San Rafael Street, a pedestrian path that connects the Centro Habana municipality with Old Havana, the presence of uniformed police officers and members of the State Security even outnumber the passers-by. “Here even the street sweeper is part of the political police today,” a customer who waits to shop at one of the hard currency stores located on that street ironizes.

Inside the store, the employees are not happy. They must remain guarding the premises until midnight but they have not been guaranteed a lunch or a snack despite the extension of working hours. The looks are uncomfortable but they avoid complaining out loud.

The police operation in the area has also scared off customers, who form a small line, something rare for a Monday. In the middle of the morning, a burly man dressed as a policeman calls out to others and they have a brief continue reading

meeting in a corner. Give directions, reiterate what needs to be done, and speak in short, authoritative sentences. He looks like a military man addressing his soldiers.

Many people all dressed in civilian clothes attend the rally to receive instructions on policing the Boulevard. There are apparent couples, elderly people that until a few minutes before anyone would have mistaken for a retiree walking down the street, and several men who repeat the pattern of short hair, a tight shirt and a watchful gaze that identifies the security force members in Cuba.

Shortly before, a man who was standing on the corner of the block had been called by a police officer who asked him why he was there. The gentleman was also waiting to enter the hard currency store but he moved away a bit to smoke. His identity card was checked and noted.

The tension is palpable in the air and it is evident that the authorities have deployed their security forces so that the scenes of popular protests that were seen by San Rafael on July 11 are not repeated in the place. Nor the scene of a lonely man with a placard like the one that Luis Robles starred in last December on that same road.

A young man passing by is followed by an old man who has seen him take out his mobile just as the meeting was taking place. He walks behind him for several blocks, until he reaches Reina Avenue, where he manages to lose track of him. “I was only able to make a phone call when I was in the middle of the street with cars passing on both sides,” he explains to this newspaper.

“I had to take refuge in the house of an aunt who lives nearby because they were following me, I’ve never felt like this in my own city,” he details. “They are using many old men for the operation, old men and women.”

In every street, in front of every shop and every bank, the siege is repeated. The informal vendors that are so abundant on Galiano, Reina and Monte avenues seem to have smelled danger and this Monday they are not there or are taking refuge inside the stairs and the thresholds of some doors.

“I went out to buy bread and there were very strange people in line at the bakery who are not from this neighborhood,” says María Eugenia, a retired resident of Los Sitio. “When I got to the counter I asked the employee to sell me an extra bread and I was going to pay her well, but she just looked at the line and said: Grandma, I can’t today.”

____________

Counter-Revolutionary Conversation While Waiting in Line in Central Havana

Some people take a break from waiting in line to get into Maisí, a store in Central Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 7 November 2021 — It’s noon on Saturday and a group of people find themselves together in a cafe on San Francisco Street in Central Havana. Some are taking a break to eat, while they wait in line to get into Maisí, a nearby store where customers can now find consumer goods that have not been available for months at stores that accept Cuban currency. After several customers arrive, the place quickly becomes a small debating salon.

A teenager complains to his father about the price of pizzas. “Forty pesos, papá. Christ! Before they cost 1 CUC* (24 pesos). You can’t live in this country anymore,” he says in a loud voice. “That’s why I’m going out to protest on the 15th [of November], to shout ’Down with communism!’” The boy fails to notice that there are also two policemen in the cafe.

His father immediately looks toward the uniformed officers, fearing the worst. Though the police have been there awhile, the staff is taking its time serving them, one of the subtler forms of resistance against the forces of law and order, whose presence has recently become more visible on Cuban streets, especially after the violent suppression of the public protests last July.

“Don’t say things like that. They’ll hear you,” warns his father, pointing to the police with a nod of his head. continue reading

“Don’t scold the boy,” interrupts another customer. “If nobody says anything, nothing will change. We don’t solve anything by staying silent. And the young always prevail.” Several faces turn away from the pizzas, fruit smoothies and ham sandwiches and towards the conversation taking place.

“Then I don’t know what we did it for. If he was there on the 11th [of July], so were you and I. The neighborhood was empty,” the youth mockingly replies, alluding to their joint participation in that day’s demonstrations. His father’s face reddens as he directs his son’s gaze towards the two officers, who are looking at the ceiling as though they have heard nothing.

A woman joins in on the conversation. “Of course we have to go to the march,” she says with determination. “Just look around. How long has it been since we were able to buy toiletries in this neighborhood? Everyone knows the only reason you can find them today is because they’re trying to calm things down. But I’ll buy them and go to the protest. Just like the first time.” Everyone laughs as they leave with their pizzas in hand, headed towards the store.

The police are virtually the last to pick up their orders.

*Translator’s note: CUC = Cuban convertible peso, one of Cuba’s two currencies, which has now been eliminated.

____________

Fines of 1,500 pesos for Cuban Retirees Who Sell Plastic Bags on the Street

Many elderly people supplement their meager pension by selling plastic bags. (14ymedio)

Plastic bags are rarely seen in the State’s network of retail stores, but they are also in short supply in hard currency stores

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 5 November 2021 — A commotion this Thursday at the corner of Hospital and San Lázaro in Havana. Residents and passersby reacted with outrage when they saw the police carting off retirees who were selling plastic bags.

“I’m pissed off!” exclaimed a customer who walked into a nearby barbershop to get a haircut. “They have taken the old men on the corner just for selling bags. How evil! I had to bite my tongue to not say anything to them. Why don’t they take the managers of the neighborhood stores? It’s easier to abuse the elderly,” he said annoyed.

The pushcart sellers are located in front of the El Lazo de Oro bakery and the residents know that if they need bags for their shopping they should go there, where they will find the retirees who offer the jabitas, as the bags are popularly known, and also their coffee ration from the bodega or a few pounds of sugar.

The police operation surprised vendors this Thursday. Some were able to get away and escape, but not all were so lucky. “This is what sparks sadness and grief. Those poor old people sell their bags and any other nonsense to be able to eat. Before they also sold continue reading

homemade butter, but since the milk disappeared, not even that,” says a man at the exit of the bakery with bread in hand.

“They said they were going to apply fines of 1,500 pesos. I was saved because I was late today,” a local saleswoman tells passersby who ask.

Nylon bags are rarely seen in the state’s network of retail stores, but they are also in short supply in foreign exchange stores, and customers have to carry their own to avoid having to carry the their purchases in their hands.

Some retirees buy them at the few points of sale where they are available, to later resell them at the door of agro-markets, bakeries and other businesses, as a way to get extra income at a time when pensions cover less than ever. If possible.

According to area residents speaking to 14ymedio, on October 25 there was also a police operation in which the pushcart sellers who sell food and vegetables were fined.

____________

Cubans Enjoyed Halloween Under the Uneasy Gaze of the Police

As the night progressed, the teenagers began to arrive, with much more elaborate costumes that imitated the characters of the best-known horror films. (14 and a half) — As the night progressed, the teenagers began to arrive, with much more elaborate costumes that imitated the characters from the best-known horror films. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 1 November 2021 — Nervousness has taken hold of the forces of order, which this Sunday first tried to dissolve and then allowed a spontaneous Halloween celebration to continue on the Paseo del Prado in Havana.

Hundreds of people gathered around 8:00 at night in the central street of the capital. The first to arrive were the parents, some of them in disguise, with their young children. “I really like your Spiderman costume, I am Rapunzel,” a girl with a long blonde bow and pink robe said ecstatically to another little girl dressed in a popular Spider-Man costume.

As the night progressed, and while the minors ran and played up and down the Paseo, the teenagers began to arrive, with much more elaborate costumes that imitated the characters of the best-known horror films. The boys photographed themselves and uploaded the images to social networks, proud of their shared Halloween, when the Police appeared, trying to expel and disperse them with a hostile attitude.

The first to arrive were the parents, some of them in disguise, with their young children. (14ymedio)

However, more young people continued to arrive despite efforts to disband the group in the northern area of the Paseo. As if a counter-order had arrived, suddenly the agents stopped and began only to observe and monitor those congregating. Some were dressed in civilian clothes, others in military clothing, police officers, the canine brigade with their dogs and even the special brigade with patrol motorcycles and even a truck.

Two motorized police officers stopped a vendor on the adjoining sidewalk, without letting him continue reading

approach the Prado with his cart full of sweets and preserves.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with them. They look at you as if you were a criminal. It bothers them that the kids play here, this is a public place,” says a man to the woman who walks with him with a little girl disguised as a witch. “What happens is that they have more fear than the desire to live. Not that the children were going to overthrow the Government with a spell,” she answers annoyed.

Since the day before on the Prado, the Malecón and on Calle G thousands of young people have gathered to celebrate Halloween. In several videos shared on social networks, you can even see the moment when the police repressed a large group that was walking through the Prado as the police tried to disperse them.

“On Saturday night a group of friends went out and we wanted to go sit on the Malecón but the police did not let us get there. Since we had been going down 23rd we saw that masses of people were going up La Rampa and we suspected that something had happened,” a 15-year-old girl tells this newspaper.

This Sunday a strong police operation kept the celebrations tense. Hundreds of uniformed men and agents guarded the streets and did not allow cell phones to take videos in some areas. The independent journalist Héctor Luis Valdés Cocho was arrested after making a live broadcast on his social networks.

Valdés Cocho confirmed to 14ymedio that he was detained by two plainclothes agents. “They put me in a gray car with a private Geely license plate and took me to Villa Marista and there you know: ‘undress and pose for them to check you’ and then two interrogations for more than 40 minutes each,” describes the collaborator of DNA Cuba, released this Monday morning.

Halloween or Samhain, celebrated on All Hallows’ Eve, is a pagan festival of Celtic tradition with which the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the new year were celebrated. The Irish imported it to the United States, where it was incorporated into popular culture with its own iconography and from there it has been exported around the world again, especially through the film industry.

Although in Cuba the ruling party has always looked at it with suspicion, in recent decades the holiday has been making its way amid the enthusiasm of young people and with the support of the private sector, which has seen the day a good time to market accessories, organize costume parties and decorate their premises with fake cobwebs or skulls.

____________

Providing Three Meals a Day Is Difficult but Cubans’ Obsession with Bread, Even if Low-Quality, Makes It Easier

Though the baker sells several varieties, only garlic bread was for sale on Thursday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 29 October 2021 — A long line of people waited outside the bakery on Carlos III Avenue to buy garlic bread, the only kind for sale on Thursday morning. The cost was 6 pesos each, limited to ten a customer.

“Like public transportation, this bakery has odd hours. I try to get here early to avoid the crowd,” says one customer seated on a small stool she brought from home. Meanwhile, an employee controls the flow of people entering the shop, allowing only two in at a time.

I really like the garlic bread because it saves me having to add my own oil and garlic. We eat it just by itself,” adds the customer.

“Garlic? No way! I mean, it’s edible but no garlic has ever been near that bread,” responds another customer, eliciting laughter from those around her.

The bakery sells other breads, such as sandwich bread for 25 pesos, but there is not much demand for it. There is also the popular barrita, a top seller due to its low price of 5 pesos. There is always a selection but, when supplies run out, customers can wait as long as thirty minutes to an hour before a new batch arrives. continue reading

When supplies run out, the wait can last from thirty minutes to an hour before a new batch is ready. (14ymedio)

Wheat flour has been in such short supply that in May bakeries began using corn flour as a substitute. Recently, long lines have started wrapping around bakeries and police have had to intervene after arguments and fights broke out. Though the situation improved somewhat over the summer, the bakery in Carlos III is still not back to the kind of normality that perhaps no longer exists in Cuba: being able to buy something without having to wait in a long line under a blazing sun.

Cubans are obsessed with bread in part because it serves as a substitute for many other foods that have been disappearing from their tables. Bread with oil, bread with mayonnaise, bread with guayaba jam and many other such combinations have become a way to get by between meals or now serve as substitutes for traditional dishes made with rice, beans and meat.

Bread made from refined flour ends up in a school backpacks as part of a between-class snack and as a replacement for the tasteless hospital food served to patients in hospitals. Fervent consumers will flock to wherever it is being sold, especially if the price is lower than for bread made from elaborate recipes at privately owned bakeries

____________

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: